How To Upgrade Your Laptop To Play Games?

Can I Upgrade My Laptop for Gaming? It’s a question a lot of gamers are asking.

Perhaps you’ve just bought a new laptop for work and are wondering what to do with the old one.

Then, an idea strikes you – why not convert it into a gaming laptop? It would save you a few hundred dollars, right?

I’m going to show you how to approach the whole process – what to remove, what to add, and what to change.

But first, let’s state it clearly that upgrading a laptop for gaming isn’t as easy as it sounds.

Manufacturers are determined to sell their products and make it difficult to upgrade, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be done! So, they would rather see you dump your old laptop and buy a new one.

For this reason, they have come up with parts that simply cannot be removed and BIOs locks that construct a virtual Stasi, imprisoning your device and only allowing it to work with standard components.

But that won’t stop us. Here is what you need to do;

Step-by-Step Methods To Upgrade Laptop For Gaming

Step one: Upgrade the CPU

Start by checking online to see if anyone has ever upgraded the CPU of that laptop, then find out if the CPU is soldered or socketed. Socketed CPUs are easier to replace.

Check the model of the processor using CPU-Z, AMD Overdrive, or the Intel Processor Identification Utility. Then, look up the processors in the same family line.

Choose a processor with the same socket, voltage range, and thermal profile as the one you’re replacing.

Also, ensure that the BIOS can support the new processor. Updating the BIOS can help here.

Once you’ve found the ideal replacement, remove the old processor and gently fix in the new one. Installing a processor in a laptop isn’t any different from installing one on a desktop.

In fact, the only major difference is that instead of the standard ZIF lever, you’ll be dealing with screws.

Step Two: Strive For Better Graphics

The Achilles heel of portable gaming devices is the lack of any realistic graphic upgrade options. But again, that shouldn’t derail your efforts. There are two viable options you can consider.

The first one is to buy an external PCI-e adapter and PCI-e graphics card to replace the existing hardware. Check out these best external graphics cards before you buy!

One good option is the PE4H which costs about $65 including shipping. Once you have it, you just plug and play.

The second option is to find a streaming service such as GameFly.com. Gamefly has a wide variety of games to choose from, many of them offering a 30-minute trial and a three to five-day pass.